ADVICE JONATHAN THOMPSON CLA SENIOR HERITAGE ADVISER jonathan.thompson@cla.org.uk 020 7460 7942
Analysing the progress that has been made in the field of heritage reform, and the new advice on listed building consent
T
his year is the 10th anniversary of the CLA’s heritage policy manifesto Averting crisis in heritage, which explained the cost and regulatory problems members face when looking after heritage, and included many case studies that were embarrassing for the heritage regulation system. While almost all members supported heritage protection in principle, many thought that, in practice, it put too many hurdles in the way of necessary change – and not enough in the way of bad change.
The new post-NPPF system Of course, Averting crisis in heritage was not just a list
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of problems: it made careful recommendations. A decade – and much work – later, there has been substantial progress. Most important is the combination of the 2012 National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the 2014 Planning Practice Guidance (PPG), which for the first time set out a sound national planning policy basis for heritage. This system is now founded on: ‘Conservation’ (explicitly defined as the careful management of change). This replaced the previous ‘presumption in favour of preservation’ ‘Significance’ – in other words, what really matters. This replaced the assumption that everything (especially all ‘historic fabric’)
must be ‘preserved’ Proportionality – focusing thinking on the key issues Viability, so that heritage is assumed to need financially viable uses, including new uses. This replaced the presumption that the original use must be best Certainty, and more advice. This replaced the presumption that heritage was only a matter for public sector ‘experts’, and that publishing advice would be dangerous because it would fetter the discretion of those experts.
Advice This NPPF approach is – on paper – a transformational change, and owners who follow it (helped by CLA guidance notes) should get consent. After further encouragement from the CLA and others, Historic England has filled some of the previously-gaping holes in advice by creating a series of advice notes, which sit below the NPPF and PPG
IMAGE: ALAMY
HERITAGE
Heritage reform
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